Lance Whitney / Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Google Gemini can now create a slide show presentation for you. You can base the presentation on a text prompt or an uploaded file. You can then export the file to Google Sheets. Have you ever struggled to create a slide show presentation in PowerPoint or Google Slides? Maybe you had trouble figuring out what to write or how to visualize it. Well, these days you could certainly turn to AI to provide a helping hand. And one tool that can now assist you is Google Gemini. Also: Gemini is gaining fast on ChatGPT in one particular way, according to new data Rolling out now to Google Pro accounts and soon to free plans is a new AI skill accessible through Gemini's Canvas tool. Canvas is a handy feature that lets you visualize web pages, computer code, and presentations as you build them. As the latest step, you're now able to ask Gemini to create a presentation based on your text description or on a document or other file that you upload. "In Canvas, just give Gemini a topic or upload a source, and it will generate a full set of slides -- complete with a theme and relevant images," Google said in a Friday blog post. "Then export to Google Slides to easily finalize your presentation." How to use Canvas in Gemini With Canvas, you can work with your prompts and instructions in one half of the window while you see the actual visual results in the other half. This useful layout lets you see in real time how your revisions affect and change the output. To check this out, sign in to the Gemini website with your Google account. If you have a Pro personal or Workspace account, you should be able to try this new skill right away. If you have a free account, you may have to wait a few days or perhaps longer. Also: This new Google Gemini model scrolls the internet just like you do - how it works At the Gemini page, click the Tools menu and select Canvas. At the prompt, type a description of the presentation you want to generate. My experience creating a presentation On my end, I entered the following prompt: "Create a presentation that discusses the pros and cons of password managers." After a couple of minutes, the presentation appeared with 13 slides in total. In the Canvas window, I could move from one slide to the next and switch the theme between light and dark mode. Since I didn't specify a particular style or layout, the resulting presentation looked plain vanilla with no visual flourishes. That led to my next step. Also: Google's new Jules Tools is very cool - how I'm using it and other Gemini AI CLIs Back at the prompt, I asked Gemini to make the presentation more visually interesting by applying the background from the title slide to all the other slides. But here, the AI goofed up and did the exact opposite of what I requested. Despite several attempts, Gemini was never able to get it right, forcing me to ask it to revert to the original design. At that point, I realized the best option was to create a generic presentation and then move it to Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint, where I could tweak the text and visuals myself. Next, I tried creating a presentation based on an uploaded file. For this, I chose an article I had written on how to multitask on an iPad. I told Gemini to create a presentation on the content in the uploaded file. Also: Gemini just aced the world's most elite coding competition - what it means for AGI Here, Gemini delivered a presentation that was more visually dynamic than the previous one, complete with a more exciting layout and embedded images. The AI also arranged the information from my article in a simple but effective way. Once you get a usable presentation, you can export it directly to Google Slides, download it as a PDF file, and share a public link of the Canvas itself. If you use PowerPoint instead, you can also export the file to Google Slides and then download it in PowerPoint format. Hit and miss Overall, turning to Gemini to create a presentation was hit and miss. Also: 5 reasons I use local AI on my desktop - instead of ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude The idea is sound. But as always, AI can make mistakes and fail to follow your instructions correctly. You may have to play with the prompts before you get the desired result. As I discovered, your best bet may be to generate a draft of the content and then send it to Google Slides or PowerPoint, where you can fine-tune the text, the visuals, and the layout. Want more stories about AI? Check out AI Leaderboard, our weekly newsletter.